Almost immediately after Election Day 2024, special counsel Jack Smith and his team grudgingly wrapped up their work — not because they wanted to or because they lacked compelling evidence, but because of Justice Department guidelines against prosecuting a sitting president and Donald Trump had just won.
Left without options, Smith resigned, and his criminal indictments against the president effectively evaporated.
For congressional Republicans, however, that was merely the start of a second phase. Indeed, for GOP lawmakers who saw the former special counsel as part of some conspiratorial plot, his transition to private life offered an opportunity to start demanding answers from Smith.
It’s amazing how badly this has turned out for the party.
Late last year, for example, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan scheduled a closed-door hearing with the prosecutor, and Smith offered several hours’ worth of answers. (Smith wanted the Q&A to be public, but the Ohio Republican refused.) After the hearing wrapped up, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, joked that Jordan “made an excellent decision in not allowing Jack Smith to testify publicly, because had he done so, it would have been absolutely devastating to the president and all the president’s men involved in the insurrectionary activities of Jan. 6.”
A month later, Jordan and House Republicans thought they should give this a second try, this time for all the world to see. This, too, was a disaster for the GOP.
In fact, Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu of California told MS NOW after the televised hearing, “I’m thrilled and frankly stunned House Republicans called Jack Smith to testify.”
The lesson for the GOP seemed rather obvious: Trying to get the better of the former special counsel during a congressional hearing is a very bad idea.
Nevertheless, eight weeks ago, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee decided they also wanted to give this a try, though they, like their brethren in the lower chamber, really should’ve known better.
Over the course of more than four hours, Smith reminded the public about Trump’s many alleged felonies, once again explained why the GOP’s “Arctic Frost” whining doesn’t make any sense, and in one highly memorable instance, watched Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri try to play a foolish gotcha game with the former special counsel, only to seemingly confuse a women’s college basketball team with an NBA team in one of the most embarrassing displays I’ve ever seen on Capitol Hill.
In case this isn’t obvious, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Republican members had months to prepare for this hearing. This was not a rushed process: They had plenty of time to organize their thoughts, prepare sensible questions, review the relevant facts and plan for a meaningful and illuminating hearing.
But they failed. Schmitt flubbing the difference between the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Atlanta Hawks stood out as uniquely humiliating, but he was just one of several GOP members who clearly failed to do their homework ahead of the high-profile hearing they demanded.
What we’re left with is a pattern of failure: Three times, Republicans have summoned Smith to Capitol Hill. Three times, they had time to prepare for their showdowns with their perceived bête noire. And three times, the hearings ended with GOP members looking worse and the former special counsel looking better.
If Democrats are lucky, Republicans will bring Smith back for a fourth hearing, where Schmitt can confuse other similarly named sports teams.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
The post Republicans are slow to learn a simple lesson: They can’t get the better of Jack Smith appeared first on MS NOW.
